All Episodes

Alex Raymond is a 3x tech startup founder and entrepreneur who made the journey up from Boulder to The LoCo Experience studio to share his journey and some wisdom he’s learned along the way. He was an early client of TechStars, and has been a long-term mentor in the program. And - he share how listeners can expand their business brains and mindfulness at the Conscious Entrepreneur Summit - upcoming May 28 and 29 in Boulder. Alex is also the Host of the Conscious Entrepreneur Podcast, which has ...

This week, I was pleased to spend time with Scott Kissel, Executive Director of Sky Corral Ranch - located near the top of the full-year drivable portion of Old Flowers Road in Bellvue, Colorado. LoCo Think Tank has held its annual Next Level Summit at Sky Corral the past two years, and we’re pleased to return this August for another amazing dose of mountain hospitality! Scott has lived quite an interesting journey, growing up in a retail grocery family in South Fork, Colorado as a hard-working...

Ann Baron is the Founder and CEO of Northern Colorado Community - an events and networking and business support organization with members across Northern Colorado - as the name would imply! Ann has lived an extraordinary journey, in some ways starting when was adopted from a South Korean orphanage at 4 years old, and raised by a family in Oregon. She became a teacher fresh out of college - didn’t like it - and went into her father’s industry of Insurance. She moved to Colorado with State Farm a...

Phil Gottula was my first guest to bring in a charcuterie plate - and we shared a beautiful bottle of white wine he also brought in - and we talked about the business of event rentals. Specifically, his business which is the leader in Northern Colorado event rentals - FLEXX Productions. The event rental industry is an interesting critter. Unlike a retail transaction where the customer pays and leaves with their stuff - event rental requires the business not only to deliver - (on time, every tim...

Harpist Meredith McCrindle was in Northern Colorado for a few weeks this winter, visiting her parents on an extended trip away from her transplanted home in Ayr, Scotland. For a portion of the trip, her close friend Jai McDowall joined her - his first time in Colorado. I met Meredith when she was at our Rotary Club one morning, promoting her upcoming concert with Jai in Fort Collins. She agreed (and voluntold Jai) to come on the show, and it was a lot of fun! Meredith’s album, When Walls Speak,...

Dain Johnson was a high-level mechanical and industrial engineer for a decade, during which time he worked under some great managers - and some terrible ones! He developed a keen interest in psychology, eventually leading him to further his education with a Masters in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from CSU, and to the founding of his business, Rev 0. Dain is a coach for engineers turned managers. These range from first-time managers, to rising stars potentially headed toward the CEO ...

Jane Brewer grew up in a diverse neighborhood in the heart of New York City, with a constant heart for people and service and adventure. She signed up for AmeriCorps to work in support of Habitat for Humanity projects, and at 22 revealed that she didn’t have a driver’s license when asked to drive a truck and trailer to a project! A few short years later she drove herself to Crested Butte, Colorado for a job on a ski hill, and worked a series of small jobs before landing in 911 dispatch. Her jou...

I became acquainted with Cole Strehlow circa 2012, when my wife and I first began attending The Crossing Church in Fort Collins, where Cole still serves as Chief Musician. He was a gifted writer with a Theology degree from a small university in Northern Wisconsin, and was trying to string an income together through church music, freelance writing, and crappy jobs. A few years later, he was the first employee of a startup called Wintermind Group (featured in Episode 24), which later merged to be...

Rick Gardner is an EOS Implementer in our Northern Colorado region. He grew up in Leadville, Colorado, and had his dreams of a long professional bull-riding career ended by injury. He’s gone on to a series of interesting professional and entrepreneurial ventures, and his previous chapter was founding and growing an Venture Accelerator and Investment Hub aligned with University of Buffalo in New York, which served over 150 companies and raised over $100M in capital. Disclaimer - We forgot to tal...

In today’s conversation, I’m joined by longtime Producer of The LoCo Experience, (and continuing as Operations Manager of many hats at LoCo Think Tank) Alma Arellano, along with our newest employee and incoming Producer of the podcast, Ava Munos! We dig into Ava’s background a bit - which revolved around competitive dance for years - and explore some of the changes coming for Season 5 of The LoCo Experience. Also, Alma breaks down our top 5 most-listened episodes of 2024 and we talk about some ...

Nate Hines is the President of Hines, Inc., a global leader in design solutions for irrigation water management. He is a husband, father, armchair historian, philosopher, and business enthusiast. He received his secondary education from Oxford University, with degrees in History and Ancient History. The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/ 💡Learn about LoCo Think Tank Follow us to see what we're up to: Instagram LinkedIn Facebook Music By: A Br...

Becky Lauridson is the Founder of IOME Self Care, a LoCo Think Tank member, a fan of Lens Neurofeedback, a wife, mother, and elk hunting guide on her family ranch near Craig, Colorado. The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/ 💡Learn about LoCo Think Tank Follow us to see what we're up to: Instagram LinkedIn Facebook Music By: A Brother's Fountain

My conversation today was with Ryan Reed-Baum, CEO and Owner of TruLog, a company founded by his father, Ted, but that Ryan basically re-launched years later. To set the stage, we need to add some context. In the mid-80’s, Ted worked for Knudson Manufacturing, building and servicing gutter and steel siding manufacturing machines. By the mid-90’s, he’d started his own business (R & B Home Improvement) doing every kind of siding, additions and remodels, and also building log homes from scratch. L...

I met Matthew Fugate circa summer 2017, when LoCo Think Tank was really starting to become a thing, and Matthew was a fresh-in-town Realtor. I remembered him well for two reasons 1) He was enthusiastic about LoCo Think Tank but could never remember my business name or my name - he’d shout from across the street in Old Town - Hey LoCoNoCo Guy! and 2) He made a big splash with a bus bench purchase, featuring himself in a suit with a suggestive pose, and the message “For a Good Time, Call Matthew H...

Since he was a little boy, Forrest Cramer has always been an artist. He was drawing recognizable profiles and pencil-shading landscapes at an age when most of us were working on stick-figures, and in his late teens he had the opportunity to apprentice with a local violin-maker. He wasn’t ready yet to make it his lifetime craft, landed a role in antique furniture restoration - and later - as his skills improved - reproduction. When Forrest started his business, he did a lot of different things. ...

I’ve known Aaron McCambridge for perhaps 15 years, as he’s been an occasional visitor to my Rotary Club, where his father is a longtime member. I’ve known about Citadel Advisory Group for even longer, as they were a client of the bank I worked at the last stop in my career, going back to 2007. When I left the bank in 2013, Aaron had only recently entered the industry in what was effectively an intern/analyst role, and now shares leadership with fellow Managing Partner, Matt Thomas. Citadel wo...

Brian Kerlin had a successful sales career of over 2 decades when the first cornerstones of Optitude were laid, and he became enamored with the entrepreneurial lifestyle while dating his now-wife, who had a successful professional services company - but was struggling to build the systems for predictable growth. Brian helped her discover and overcome those challenges to growth, and soon started sharing his insights with her entrepreneurial friends. He continued in his corporate sales role for ma...

I met Ty Dannebring at church one Sunday, when he hunted me down and said “Can we have a conversation about possibly being on your podcast, with regard to our new book?” Knowing nothing, I said, “of course” - and then after a coffee and conversation I was eager to spend time in the podcast studio with Ty and his co-author, Jeff Dillon. Ty is a financial advisor with a big idea, and Jeff is a Pastor at Redemption Church in Loveland, and his skill and expertise in writing helped give shape to Ty’s...

Today's episode features regular guest Aaron Everitt, along with his 17 year old son, Emerson, discussing the election coverage and election season of 2024. We started at 7:30ish PM MT, and called it a night by 9:30 PM MT as it became obvious Trump was going to be #47. Aaron is a highly-acclaimed X.com creator of independent material, including a series of 100 essays on philosophical and economic topics, many of which supported the candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He and Emerson were able to ...

In my early years of LoCo Think Tank, when I was just getting out of the mobile food catering game, everyone was talking about the wonderful new caterers in town, Juli & Juan! Soon after, we had the chance to get acquainted, and they catered one of our most successful events during LoCo’s strongest expansion year of 2019 - Tips, Tacos, & Tequila - featuring business tips, a tequila talk and tasting, and tacos from Juli Y Juan’s Kitchen! The colors and flavors that Juli creates, and the sheer bea...

The business journey we’re featuring in today’s episode started when Garrett fell in love with Andrew’s sister (and later married), and took a great leap forward during the Covid pandemic when Garrett became the owner-operator of a standalone Anthony’s Pizza & Pasta location in the Central Park area of Denver. He was working a full-time job in the automotive industry, raising young children, and worked nights and weekends to quickly prove to be the most innovative, profitable and forward-thinkin...

I met Christine Forster at a big fun business event of some sort (we both can’t remember!) - circa 2022 - and we had a short but lovely conversation, and she was super interested in what LoCo Think Tank was all about, and gave me her card with encouragement to connect. And then - her card got lost in the shuffle and we didn’t connect proper until this podcast conversation! As much as I love sharing a conversation with someone I’ve known for years, it’s quite special to me when I get to know som...

John Arnolfo operated the Silver Grill Cafe for 42 years, and found his exit plan through my guest on Episode 143, Alan Jantzen. John and partner Mike Gress purchased Silver Grill on Valentines Day of 1979 as an unheated one-room diner. The business had been established by Leonidas “Flossie” Widger in 1933, and mostly served the blue collar workforce of early downtown Fort Collins. Though the partners grew the business quickly, it remained too small an enterprise to support a pair of households,...

Ben Aste is a conservationist, first and foremost, also an Eagle Scout and the son of a Swiss immigrant. Ben started Uncle Benny’s Building Supplies from a small rented shed, because he couldn’t stand to see the waste in the lumber supply industry in which he’d been working for some years. Uncle Benny’s grew quickly, and is growing still, despite an interruption in retail operations you’ll hear about in the business journey segment. And - Uncle Benny’s will soon reopen bigger and better than eve...